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What have I been doing since last time? Let's see. After returning from the New Kids on the Block, I had to watch Band of Brothers (ten episodes) to get my Donnie fix. Of course I ended up watching most of the episodes twice (or six times cough'Bastogne'cough) and then writing a story about it, so yeah, that ate up about two weeks. Then I got hooked on the BBC adaptation of Dickens' 'Little Dorrit' (sixteen episodes, but they're only 30 minutes apiece) and just finished watching that yesterday. I've also been sewing doll clothes like a fiend - I'm linking you all to this but it's really only the tip of the iceberg. Fortunately, this means spending a lot of time in the basement, which is the coolest part of the house (also the spideriest).

Betsy has had a bunch of week-long sport camps (they are offered free through the school district, yay!) - this week is bowling. The kids are also on their last week of four weeks of swimming lessons (not free, boo). Porter has been doing really well with the swimming lessons - I think if we keep at it, one of my children may actually be able to swim. Betsy, not so much. But that's all right - she's good at a lot of other things. We've also been cooking out a lot (and because this is Indiana, eating a lot of corn) and swimming in the neighborhood pool. And I just made zucchini muffins from the bounty of our garden. The really crazy thing is, the kids only have a month left of summer before they go back to school!

I think I mentioned in a previous post that we had gotten a membership to Conner Prairie, the local living history museum. I honestly can't understand why we hadn't gotten a membership - it's about ten minutes from our house (unlike the zoo which is allll the way downtown) and it's only $65 a year (roughly half the cost of the Children's Museum). I think we were thinking we had to wait until the kids were school aged so that they would appreciate it. Which is clearly crazy because two-year-old Amy loves it as much as anyone. She now shouts "Connerpwaiwie!" every time we drive by on our way to church. She's a little afraid of the animals in the barn, though (even the baby sheep, it was funny how she was hanging on to me for dear life).

One of the things they have added recently is this balloon ride attraction (it's tethered so you just go straight up and down, but it is really a balloon). Now, normally I am skeptical of the obvious attempts at adding revenue (I'm looking at you Indianapolis Zoo) but this is based on something that actually happened in Indiana in the 1850s, so I give them a pass. Back in the spring we got a thing in the mail for free balloon tickets with the purchase of a membership. And the balloon ride tickets are normally like $12 a person, so we wouldn't have done it if it wasn't free. We actually tried several times before we managed to go up - it's very weather dependent, the skies have to be perfectly clear with only a hint of wind. (Perhaps this is why hot air balloons didn't revolutionize travel the way they were all predicting it would back in the 19th century.) But we finally got our free balloon ride during Fourth of July weekend.

Look out, kids! You're going to fall out!

Just kidding, that wasn't the real thing. This is the real thing:

It's a pretty smooth ride, and even though I am nervous about heights, it didn't bother me at all. The balloon gets to a maximum height of 300-something feet. You can see all the way to downtown (granted, this is Central Indiana, so that's not that impressive) and we probably could have spotted our house if it doesn't have the exact same roof as every other house in our neighborhood.

Amy was a lot less frightened of the balloon ride than she was of that vicious, vicious baby sheep. "I go up in the sky," she said, and continues to say every time we drive past.

And here's me! Matt laid down on the bottom of the basket to get that shot. We've been back to Conner Prairie a few times - I thought the kids would be clamoring to go in the balloon again, but we explained to them it was a one time deal, and they seemed to accept that.

So, that's our summer. Pretty soon my sister Laura will be coming for a visit, and we will go to the State Fair, and then the kids are in school and the fun time is over (for them. For me, fun time is just beginning). How is everyone's summer going?

The Right Stuff.

So, remember these guys?

Danny, Donnie, Jon, Jordan, and Joey. That's right, before we had all of those other boy bands, we had the New Kids on the Block. They released their first album in 1986 (when I was Betsy's age!!) but didn't really hit it big until a couple of years later. I remember being on the bus in fourth grade when I first heard about them. I actually held out for a while out of stubbornness (if everyone else likes something, I have to hate it, just to be different) but eventually I succumbed to the mania as well. Of course, on my limited budget (this was before I started babysitting to earn the big bucks) that obsession amounted to owning one single cassette tape, which I wore out on my Walkman. I think eventually I did get a hand me down T-shirt from our babysitter Tricia. I didn't have all the shirts or the giant buttons or the dolls or the Tiger Beat magazines or the posters, I didn't watch the cartoon series (in our house we watched PBS on Saturday mornings. I'm probably the only person I know who grew up watching The Victory Garden instead of Thundercats) and of course, I never went to one of their concerts.

All things good or otherwise must come to an end, and the New Kids' reign in the spotlight only lasted a couple of years. They changed their name to NKOTB and released another album but by then we were all listening to grunge. The New Kids and their cheerful songs and brightly colored Hammer-pants were so over.

But, nostalgia is a big business these days. The New Kids actually released a new album in 2008 and have been touring off and on since it came out. When their dates for this year's Casi-NO tour were announced, Mandy made it her personal business to get me to go. Now, Mandy went to town with the obsession back in the day. (Like this.) She's already been to several of their concerts, whereas I haven't been to ANY concerts, EVER (unless you count Vertical Horizon at Clowes Hall my junior year at Butler, which I don't because I left after like half an hour, which is another story). Fortunately, I wasn't too hard to persuade. An evening away from my kids? And it's up on the north side of Indiana so we will have to stay the night in a hotel? Done and done!

I have to admit, I was a little bit of a slacker. I didn't prepare for the concert by listening to their music, mainly because I didn't have any. I've been on a big indie kick lately, thanks to Amazon and their free MP3 sampler downloads, and I thought nineties bubblegum pop might be a tad incongruous with Minus the Bear and Spoon and whatever. I only had my memories to go on - that and the fact that Donnie Wahlberg was awesome in Band of Brothers. Fortunately Mandy has like every track that they have ever recorded, either as a group or solo, and she'd made a giant playlist. We left on Friday afternoon - me, Mandy, and Mandy's friend Michael (not to be confused with her husband Michael. Wow, it's like that was a really popular boys' name in the late seventies, or something.) So I had the whole drive up to Hammond - including a super awesome fun and totally unnecessary detour through Gary - to get pumped up. Funny how it all started to come back. By the time we got there I was ready to tight-roll my jeans (only I had on a dress).

Here's my ticket:

Yes, the concert was at a casino, which meant I got carded on the way in - something else I've never done before. The slot machines are all digitized so they don't have a lever any more (and they don't look like robot amputees waving hello). The concert venue at the Horseshoe Casino is actually called The Venue, which meant that every time we talked about it I felt like I was speaking in code. And hey, any day I can feel like a spy or some sort of operative is a good day in my book.

We had dinner at the casino, since the food there is really cheap (I gather it's not exactly their profit center). Have you ever had fried pickles? You should. (Mandy being pregnant and all, I think she achieved nirvana with that first bite.) As the concert got closer and closer, I did start to get really excited. And it was really funny to see the other people who were there - you could tell who was there to gamble and who was there to see the concert. The venue (or I should say The Venue) was 21-and-up but I don't think there was anyone under about 29 or so. Almost entirely women with a few male fans or long-suffering husbands. Lots of women could still fit into their New Kids T-shirts from back in the day (we wore our T-shirts huge in 1991, preferably with a knot tied in one side, or if you were really cool one of those plastic slider things.) But a lot of the women were pregnant, too. We had pretty decent seats, right smack in the middle.

You should have heard the insane screaming when the curtain went up. Mandy had warned me that she has no dignity where the New Kids are concerned. Turns out I don't, either. Yes, we paid for the entire seat but we didn't even use the edge. I was on my feet from beginning to end. There wasn't an opening act (unless you count the fried pickles), it was just us and them. Truly awesome. Here's some pictures:

Two of my friends from college were at the concert too, although they were in a different section so I didn't find them until the show was over. And you're probably thinking, Ooh, a boy band twenty years later, I bet THAT will be fun! But it really, really was. If they were washed-up has-beens phoning it in, well, I didn't notice. (I mean, I don't have a lot to compare it to since I've never been to any other concerts, but I don't live in a cave, either.) They played a lot of their new songs, which I liked so much I bought the CD off Amazon pretty much the minute I got home, and some of the older stuff that I remember from when I was in fifth grade. And I really had a hard time believing that these guys are ten years (give or take) older than me. Because they were dancing all over the place and climbing the scenery and whatnot. And they are ripped... yes, there was shirtlessness, it was only for a minute or so but I am not saying I didn't enjoy it.

Oh, and we totally saw Donnie up close and personal when all of the guys went up the aisles. It was pretty funny, because I've only watched Band of Brothers a million times (or at least three, since I always see it when I have a baby). Mandy wore her Boston Red Sox shirt in honor of the New Kids being from Boston, and I think that Donnie liked it. We were so excited, we were squealing like a couple of teenage girls.

It was truly awesome. I absolutely killed my voice - even a delicious Mint Cookies & Cream shake at Steak-n-Shake didn't prevent me from being completely hoarse the next day. I had a ball hanging out with my sister-in-law and her hilarious friend, AND I got away from the kids for a good twenty-four hours. I'm sad that the concert is over, but since this is 2010, I can always look up the videos on YouTube. And if they come around again next summer... I will so be there.

The happenings around here

School is almost out, so I had better get a blog post up before summer hits and I spend all my days driving my kids around. Why did nobody tell me before I had school aged kids that planning out their summers is practically a full time job? It's not that I think they are overscheduled, it's just that with a different thing going on every week, I have to figure when to fit everything in and still have some time to play and go to the pool and whatnot. I think it'll be fun, but I know I will be relieved when it is over.

Anyway. Here's what is going on around here.

• Garage sale season is in full swing. After several disappointing outings, I found some really good stuff last weekend.
• After driving past it on the way to church every Sunday for nearly four years, we finally got a membership to our local living history museum. We actually got a coupon in the mail for free balloon tickets with purchase of a membership, only by the time we got there the wind had kicked up & they cancelled the ride. But they gave us rain checks so I guess we will have to go back another time!
• I'm keeping really busy (but having fun) making stuff for my Etsy.
• I've been kind of obsessed with The Dodos lately, especially this song.
• Speaking of obsessed, Amy gets really mad if we don't let her wear a dress. She is all about the baby dolls lately, but they have to be naked. She's also figured out how to jump, which is really funny since she barely clears the ground.
• Betsy keeps telling me she is going to be an author when she grows up. She loves to write little stories and then illustrate them. She is really loving first grade (they hatched baby chicks!) and she's been doing well with her spelling. Betsy is all about compound words right now. Sometimes I have a hard time explaining to her when a word isn't.
• And Porter is almost done with preschool. I took him to the kindergarten orientation at his school last week... I needn't have bothered, he already knows his way around the building and has been riding a bus for the last two years. I think he's really ready, since he's already reading and everything. Plus, in kindergarten they do a unit about dinosaurs.
• Oh yeah, we booked our next vacation to Disneyworld. We'll be going at the end of October when the kids are on fall break. Woo hoo! By then it will have been more than three years since our last visit, which I think is a decent interval. The kids are getting hyped up for it already.
• Betsy's dance recital is this Saturday. Be watching this space, I'll post video. She likes to put on her costume (it's purple) and practice the dance, so I can verify that it is, in fact, wicked adorable.

Five

Get a load of this handsome guy:

Porter's birthday was actually a week ago, but since I am both a bad mother and a neglectful blogger, I'm writing about it now. Actually, Porter was a lucky boy because he managed to get three or four days' worth of enjoyment out of his birthday!

Because of Matt's work schedule (which changes every five minutes it seems like) he wasn't going to be around at night on Porter's big day. So on Saturday we went to Chuck E Cheese for an exciting lunch of pizza and arcade games. My kids really love Chuck E Cheese, and I love getting the coupons for it out of the newspaper. I forgot to bring the camera so there aren't any pictures, but it was really cute. We also got Mike and cousin Miles to meet us up there because they are fans of the cheese-eating rodent as well. Watching my two-year-old nephew own his daddy at air hockey was really, really amusing.

Sunday we had church, and then the Official Birthday Celebration. We invited Mike, Mandy, and Miles over because (as it turns out) Miles is a fan of cupcakes too. Porter's birthday dinner was hotdogs. Actually, the meal planning conversation went like this:

ME: Porter, what do you want for your birthday dinner?

PORTER: Hot dogs or pizza.

ME: Well, we are going to Chuck E Cheese and we'll have pizza for lunch, so how about hot dogs for dinner?

PORTER: Okay.

ME: What do you want to have with it?

PORTER: How about... some water for drinking.

ME: [is relieved to have a low maintenance child]

PORTER [a few minutes later]: Mom, make sure the water is not from a pond.

ME: Okay.

PORTER: Or from a pool.

ME: I promise we will get it from the fridge.

So Porter had his birthday dinner of hot dogs and some water for drinking (but not from a pond or a pool). Actually he had apple juice to drink, and some delicious Ore Ida fries, and cupcakes with yellow frosting (had to be yellow because that's a boy color according to my kids) for dessert.

Because Porter is a boy (in case you hadn't gotten that by now) it's pretty easy to buy him gifts. We gave him a couple of dinosaur-themed Imaginext sets (Imaginext are these toy sets that Fisher Price makes and P has a bunch of them already. They are very, very boy) and Grandma Lynn and cousin Miles both gave him Legos. Not the big Duplo blocks, mind you, but tiny Legos (that's what he calls them). He's been telling us for ages that when he's five, he can play with tiny Legos. Well, guess who is five now!

Two

So, guess who had a birthday last week?

I'll give you a hint: her name is AMY.

Yep, my baby is two years old (sniff, sniff); her birthday actually came at the end of a very fun-filled week. The kids were on Spring Break so we had something fun planned every day, like the zoo, the museum, the library, and Chick-Fil-A. Amy's birthday was on Friday but we didn't actually celebrate it until Saturday, because of Matt's work schedule with his new job. But she doesn't really know any better.

Amy's favorite gift this year: a Bitty Baby of her OWN, just like the one she always steals from Betsy. I got lucky and found one at a church sale for five bucks last fall. I dressed Bitty in a preemie sized outfit from WalMart and I had found a big set of baby doll accessories on clearance after Christmas. Yep, I am nothing if not cheap.

Does she seem like she minds? Not at all!
Here's Bitty in her cute new highchair (gift from Grandma in Utah). We actually need to glue the tray in place because Amy likes to take it off and sit in the chair. Didn't see that one coming, did you?!
And here she is eagerly anticipating a cupcake. Funny, but as soon as Amy saw the candles she was trying to blow them out, I didn't have to show her what to do at all. I still had to help her, of course. She enjoyed her cupcake quite a bit - not very messily at all - I think Porter was actually worse (he is morally opposed to utensils of any kind).

Lucky girl, I actually was on the ball for ONCE in my life and scheduled her 2 year checkup in the same month as her birthday and not half a year later. So, unfortunately that means she'll be getting a bunch of shots this coming Friday. (Porter actually just had his 5 year checkup today... 42 inches, 40 pounds, and 9 diseases that he won't get!) Boy, with birthday presents like THAT, I wouldn't blame her if she just skips the whole thing entirely next year...